The Isabella County Sheriff’s office has been busy relocating into their new facility, The Isabella County Criminal Justice Center.
The new facility, which will house the sheriff’s administrative offices and a new state of the art jail, has been close to a decade in the making.
It comes with a hefty price tag estimated at $46 million in a county that’s been dealing with budget issues and just axed their entire road patrol about six weeks ago.
Isabella County Sheriff Michael Main said that task was made much harder with the loss of muscle power from deputies who were just cut, leaving fewer bodies to move everything over.
“3 or 4 of us, including myself, have literally moved about 70 years’ worth of stuff over. And we’re only about half done, so it’s just been exhausting,” said Main.
Still, he’s excited for the new facility. Main said the upgrade was much needed because the old facility was built in 1959.
“It was just at its lifespan. We’ve experienced lots of mechanical issues, lots of failures. Housing inmates have become very challenging. We spent a lot of money in that old facility on maintenance and repairs. And I can tell you right now we’ve got pipes that are literally wrapped with tape to hold them from because they’re leaking,” said Main.
Main said the new facility has a lot more space, is ADA compliant, and comes with lots of bells and whistles.
It’s been in the works for years after a 2016 feasibility study discovered the old building ranked high for rebuilding or even being replaced.
Main said the new location, about 2 miles away from their current offices, is being paid for through a USDA loan for the next 35 to 40 years.
“It’s all state-of-the-art stuff. It’s nothing that other facilities that are brand new don’t have. Everything gets run through, the control panels, ladders, the lights, the, everything. So, it’s very high tech,” said Main.
The sheriff said upgrades, like adding more cameras, changing the cells from linear to a pie shape style, and the ability to separate inmates more easily, will make things safer for both staff and inmates.
“There’s a control center that’s kind of a raised, elevated area. And you get to see in every one of those cells all the time. So, it’s not only the cameras, we also have physically the ability to look into the cells and see what’s going on,” said Main.
Main said they hope to have the administrative offices moved by the end of the week and the inmates and corrections officers moved over within a few weeks.
He said its bittersweet moving into their new home right after losing their entire road patrol but all they can do is move forward.
“We’re going to continue to work on finding ways to get real patrol deputies back in our community to make sure that we are providing the best and safest community we can,” said Main.